Tag: health

On going for second order and asking for a Cookie, our server told us a secret – a secret by which you can get a cookie from free and a secret because it was mentioned no where in the store.

Went to Subway after a long time and polished off two subs of the day. Not sure about the health factor, but the cold veggies and sauces inside were definitely a relief in the scorching heat of Delhi. On going for second order and asking for a Cookie, our server told us a secret – a secret by which you can get a cookie for free and a secret because it was mentioned no where in the store.

All you need to do is logon on TellSubway – which is a site by subway to collect feedback. Since you would be in store, so most probably you would be using your mobile to access the site – all you need to do is write www.tellsubway.in in either Chrome or Safari.

Once you open the site it will ask you for the Store ID – which is written on the top left corner of your bill. After the ID it would ask you the time of order, which can be found on Top right corner of the bill. Just enter these two details and you are ready to answer some quick questions – not much different from the restaurant feedback form, just more convenient. Once you are done it would ask for your mail ID and option to send you offers and all, which I choose NO, as did not want my mailbox to be spammed.

Once you are finished it gives you a code, which you simply take to the counter of the store you are in and redeem for the free cookie of your choice. That simple.

Tips :

If you are ordering more than 1 sub, do so in multiple orders so that you have more than one bill and hence chance to have more than one cookie.

One cookie every 24 hours per email ID please. You can use the same phone, but different email ID for every claim.

Even if you don’t like the cookie for yourself, its still a good idea to claim it and give it away to someone who will appreciate it more.

Worried about the nutrition of your Child? Here are a mother’s tip on taking care of their diet, when they need it the most.

Every parent’s nightmare is to see their baby sick. It’s so heartbreaking and distressing to suddenly see your chirpy munchkin ill and droopy. And the hardest part for mommies is to feed them healthy stuff when they don’t want to eat anything.

Few days back my 2 year old suddenly had a fever in the middle of the night. It wasn’t that high then but the next night it went up to 104. Me and my husband got scared to the core. We quickly called my brother in law who is a pediatrician and took quick measures to bring his body temperature down. Thankfully it worked.

They next day, again fever as high as 104 with no other symptoms. No cough, cold or anything, just fever going straight up-to 104 within minutes. Since there were no other symptoms we had to get couple of tests done. Thankfully it was negative and it turned out to be a Bacterial infection which had to be treated with antibiotics.

So the obvious is when kids are sick, food is one thing they will run away from. And like it’s said, when you don’t feel like eating, that’s when your body requires the food most. There are certain hacks I would love to share with all the mommies on how to help your child eat healthy stuff. It helped me a great deal. He’s absolutely fine now without any signs of weakness and not much of weight loss throughout his infection which was an achievement for me. Whew!! ? Touchwood!

Also, please share your hacks/tips so that we can all benefit from it. ?

If high fever is the only symptom, your child needs a calorie dense diet. This is because in such high fever, your child’s metabolic rate is raised so the body burns a lot of calories leading to weight loss and weakness.

You need to offer several small meals during the course of the day. And by calorie dense, I don’t mean too heavy or oily food.

And most importantly make sure your child remains hydrated. With high fever comes the risk of dehydration. Kids sweat a lot once the fever comes down. Make sure you offer few sips of water every hour. If they refuse, apply tricks, change cups, use straws anything that works for you but make sure they are taking enough fluids.

When toddlers eat less, the trick is to feed them more nutrition in less. Few points, I would like to share:

1: Soak nuts at night and give this to your child in the morning. You can soak almonds, raisins, walnut, dried apricot and date. Dried nuts are a great source of energy. This is your child’s morning fuel and it’s super rich in proteins and iron.

So now the question is how to give them these?

I usually make a porridge for him in the morning with suji/dalia/oats and a fruit and add this in his porridge.

2: Custard goes down very well with kids. Make custard the usual way. Mash in half a banana and an egg yolk. Add brown sugar/shakar or honey to sweeten it. It’s super delicious.

3: While making chapati or parantha for your child, add a tsp of flaxseeds and melon seeds powder in his dough or you can also add this in his porridge or custard.

4: When I give my child milk, i avoided serving plain milk to him. I always made him milkshakes with different fruits: banana, mango, apple, chiku. Add couple of drops of vanilla extract, a pinch of cinnamon to enhance the taste.

5: Mashed Potatoes with Eggs: This went very well with. Potatoes are rich in Vitamin C and egg without a doubt is super nutritious.

6: Try Peanut butter milkshake for your child. Peanut butter is super healthy and rich in proteins. It tastes best with bananas. Just add a tsp of peanut butter in banana milkshake.

7: Make sure you are feeding your child foods rich in Vitamin C to boost his immune system. The best way to serve this is with iron rich food. Like my son likes scrambled eggs: so I grate red bell pepper, capsicum and broccoli (all three are great source of vitmain C) and some chopped spinach leaves. Cook these in olive oil/butter till tender and then add beaten eggs.

-You can also try spinach, tomato, capsicum and potato soup for him.
-Or make suji upma/vegetable oats with veggies rich in Vitamin C.

8: To increase the nutritional value of any vegetable you cook for your child, instead of adding coriander leaves, sprinkle some spinach leaves and cook for 2 mins or till tender.

9: Methi leaves are another super nutritious food. It’s rich in calcium, phosphorus, Iron and Vitamin C.
Try feeding your child methi parantha. Just blanch methi leaves and a make smooth puree. To this add salt and half a BANANA and knead the dough with this. Not only banana makes it more healthy and filling but the sweetness of banana will balance the bitterness and strong flavour of methi making it more delicious.

10: Encourage your child to have yogurt. This was the only thing he took willingly and for rest i had to work really hard.
Probiotics in yogurt will help boost your child’s immune and digestive system.
Give yogurt at room temperature. Avoid chilled yogurt.

11: You can also add boiled egg yolk in banana/apple/mango milkshake.

12: Offer Beetroot to your baby. It’s super rich in not only Vitamin C but also Vitamin B complex and folate. It also has a mild laxative effect which can help your child poop well because medication often tend to constipate babies.
-you can puree steamed beets in mashed potatoes. Kids love the colour.
-Add beets in scrambled eggs.
-make beet and banana smoothie. Steam a slice of beetroot and blend it with half a banana and a glass of milk/yogurt. This worked for me wonderfully.

These are some of the tips that helped my child fight the infection. I hope it helps you as well.

If you usually feed your child every 3 to 3.30 hours but when he’s sick, feed him every 2 to 2.30 hours.
Go in for small bites. Kids puke the most when sick. Check for signs. Feed wait for few seconds and feed again. Requires hell lot of patience but it’s all worth it.

Do not force feed your baby. Food is important but it’s ok if he takes only few bites and leaves the rest. Try after another hour.

But what’s most important is to keep your child hydrated at all times.

Lastly and most importantly, ditch white sugar all together for your child esp when sick. Sweeten your child’s food with shakar/jaggery which are rich in iron or honey.

He’ll get enough natural sugar from fruits and other food.

White sugar will only lower your child’s immune system or lead to obesity.

These days Tandoori for vegetarians is picking up quite a lot. Lot of small outlets have sprung up, serving primarily soy based products. Masala Chaap, Stuffed Chaap, Malai Chaap, Soya Tikka, various types of Paneer Tikka, Stuffed Aloo, Mushrooms, Dal Kebabs are some of the more popular items. For vegetarians like me, these outlets were a blessing. Finally I thought I would have something ‘healthy’ to eat, without worrying too much about calories, with loads of proteins, we finally had the counter for Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Tikka. But is it true ?

Not at all, most of these outlets, fry their chaaps before putting them on a stick and making it ‘tandoori’, surprising but true. And after they are roasted in tandoor, they add generous amount of ghee / butter / cream along with masala and chutney. Though I do not mind masala, however the added fat just kills any chance of these things being good for health. Do they taste good? A big Yes, however we should not eat them thinking that they good for health.

So my advice, if you are mood for Tandoori Soy Chaaps, because you want to eat healthy, check if they have fried them or not, and ask them not to garnish them with Ghee or butter, or if you want, you can ask them to keep it at minimum.

Being a foodie and trying to loose weight, it sounds like a bad combo. But Yours truly is sailing in that boat, trying to loose weight, in worst case, not to gain more and stay as active as I can be. And this requires me to be very careful of the portions and things I eat, well, atleast for 4 days in the week ;-).

Now there are times when you need that quick breakfast or an evening snack to get you going, and everywhere you look, you find the same fried stuff. Mind you, I am talking from perspective of very average men, and food we can eat on day to day basis. Yes, Subway is there, but somehow I don’t think it would fit an average pocket for regular consumption, and we all know about that option, so there is no point in talking about it. For past few days, I have been trying to find ways to avoid Chhole Bhature, or Poori Chhole or Kachori or Samose et al, unless I really want to have them (and that is quite often 😉 ). So what does that leave me with? My office is in Old Rajendra Nagar, and I live, lets say in the underbelly of Patel Nagar. So this would be very local to my area, however I hope some of the ideas can be ‘implemented’ wherever you live.

Talking about breakfast, there are times when you cannot eat at home or do not want to eat at home, and it always leaves me scratching my head, on what can I have without sending calorie meter in an overdrive. Now if you want to avoid Bhature/Poori/Kachori, where does that leave you? Well, the only sensible option I was able to figure out was a South Indian Cafe in the Shanker Road Market (New Rajendra Nagar). I was there a few days back and they served a fabulous Upma with Sambar and coconut Chutney. Freshly made idly tasted heavenly at that hour as well. They had vadas on offer, however they again are fried. These guys start to serve at around 7:30 AM, and by 9 odd in the morning, they have Uthapams and Dosa ready as well. What I like is that they can make a dosa for you, without using any oil, which makes it a very healthy option. Now I am assuming that such small south Indian places are aplenty in Delhi, so you might want to find one and check when they start serving. My Breakfast of Upma and an Idli was sorted out in under 50 rupees. My quest for something different, also took me to Shudh in Karol bagh, where they have a buffet breakfast for Rs. 150 per person, however then again, buffet is not my idea of on-the-go-food, and anyhow, I found it to be very average.

Upma with Chutney and Sambar

Coming to evening snacks, I have discovered couple of decent options in my area, one being a small outlet called “Tummy Tull” (I love that name :D), near Patel Nagar Metro Station, they serve various types of rolls. I am not gonna talk about all of them here, however the one that got me interested was Double Egg Nutrine roll (as they call it). Its a roll with base coated with eggs and filled with Soy nuggets. They are quite eager to oblige any special request. So I ask them to make a roll with egg whites only and fill it up with Soy Nuggets. That works out to be a very healthy option, however I have to be carefull and keep a check on the person who makes them, as he is trigger happy when it comes to use of cooking oil in making the parantha (base). I literally have to force his hand into not putting any oil in it when he makes it for me. Grab a can of diet Pepsi, and you are all set for quite filling snack for Rs.50. Again, such roll wallas are all around Delhi, and non-vegetarians can use Chicken instead of Soy Nuggets. Just find one who is ready to oblige you, and makes yours using egg whites and minimal oil.

Last one on my list is another cafe called “No Guilt Cafe” in East Patel Market (next to Domino’s), they serve Frozen Yoghurts, and snacks targeted at health concious clientele. I have been there couple of times, and encountered over-eager but much clueless staff. It gives an impression of a wannabe chain, in which money has been invested but without any sense of taste or class (in terms of decor). However I was really surprised to have their corn and Spinach grilled sandwitch. It was made in whole wheat brown bread, grilled with almost no butter, Spinach tasted deliciously smooth and sweet corns did the balancing act against the minute bitterness of spinach. The sandwich was just above Rs.100 including taxes, not exactly cheap, however I am not complaining. Also tried their Fruit and Nut sundae with frozen yoghurt and was disappointed by the miniscule amount of nuts and fruits in it.

Corn and Spinach Sandwish

Fruit and Nut sundae with Frozen Yoghurt

No Guilt Cafe, East Patel Nagar

This is as far as I have reached as of now, however my quest conitunes and I hope to discover more such places, where one can have a quick bite, without any guilts. On that note, would love to hear your experience of finding healthy food, do let me know if you have any recommendations / solutions.

PS : All the photos have been shot by my mobile phone, so if you found the quality to be poor, my apologies.